Appearances

Reappearance

"Sir, you requested I monitor all transmissions for any sign of the return of the terrorist, Loki." JARVIS' gentle tones intruded on Ozzy Osbourne's wailing.

"Yeah?" Tony Stark set his welding torch aside. Some things—okay, most things—he ignored. The god of tossing-lovable-billionaire-playboys-out-of-windows wasn't on that list of things. "What you got, J.?"

"I have intercepted a recording I estimate with 99.989% accuracy shows Loki of Asgard speaking before a large audience somewhere here on Earth."

"Right. Okay." The coffee in Tony's stomach turned chilly and sour. "Wake up the others." He stopped and blinked. "It is still night, right?" A quick affirmation from JARVIS that it was indeed just shy of 5 a.m. had Tony nodding. "Yeah, good. Get them up, order breakfast from somewhere decent. Lots of it. Thor's in house. And coffee. Oh my God, coffee. If we're dealing with the psycho little brother from hell, I need coffee. And good scotch." He wrinkled his nose as JARVIS acknowledged his orders. Okay, a shower would be a good idea, too. He headed for his suite to get cleaned up while everyone else got moving.

Loki on Earth again. Yeah, it was going to be one of those days.

Tony sniffed his coffee. "So JARVIS told you what's up? Because I don't want to go through all that again. Good. And no, I haven't see it either. I needed caffeine before I tackled Crazy Cats." Not going to mention the triple before the coffee. He didn't need Cap ragging on him this early. "All I know is J. says he can't I.D. where the transmission comes from. It's pre-recorded but seems pretty recent. Anything else we'll have to don our deerstalkers and figure out." Tony waved his cup in Steve's direction. "Doyle died in the Twenties. I figure you might get that one, grandpa."

"Yeah, I got it." Spangles didn't sound all that happy about it this time. Musta caught him in the what—three, four hours sleep he thrives on? Blue eyes glowered at Thor. "I thought Loki was supposed to be on Asgard, under whatever conditions your dad set up. So what's he doing back here?"

"My brother remained imprisoned when I left Asgard, serving his sentence. I know not how he might be free." Point Break reached for a cronut knock-off. "My father's magic is great and he holds Loki in close quarters. My brother's magic is contained. Mayhap this is an imposter?" Thor made that seem something to feel hopeful about.

"If it's somebody messing around, they've got one hell of a sick sense of humor." Hawkeye Barton tossed half a bagel back onto his plate. "Then again, Manson's still got groupies."

Widow twitched one corner of her mouth, which might or might not mean anything. "We can speculate all morning long or we can watch the damned thing and try to figure it out." Tony sort of wondered what was in her coffee. "If we don't start, we'll be here tonight still talking about nothing."

Smart woman. "Play it, J." Tony leaned back and waited for the shit to hit the fan. Though God knew, a new shot at Reindeer Games wouldn't be unwelcome. Tony still owed him a couple missiles up his skinny ass.

Hawkeye snorted as the screen showed a dark room. The sounds of people proved the video played, but only an occasional red electronic indicator light showed. "Well, we won't tell much if this is all we've got."

"Humanity, look how far you've fallen." Screams sounded from the darkness. Okay, so there was more.

"Fuck. Yeah. That's him." Barton's face twitched. Sort of all over at random intervals. One shoulder did, too. "Bastard."